Shut Up Bill

Let’s leave aside for a moment that President Obama is not and never has been a liberal. Let us ignore the flawed logic of the point which is, at its most basic, “they tried to paint you as racist caricature. You should totes do exactly what they said!” Let us even agree that there is some merit to the argument that if people will always see you as a liberal, elitist, radical you should not run from that characterization but rather embrace it.

Maher is wrong on two fronts.

First, the issue was never how the right would have spun any perceived aggression on the part of the president. The problem was and still is how the electorate would perceive any aggression on the part of the president.It’s a tough needle to thread and frankly advice from some rich, white guy is probably not as helpful as Bill was hoping.

Second, the fact that Bill Maher is, once again, unable to make the point that he thinks the president should be more aggressive by using the word aggressive rather than invoking a racist stereotype that says something very wrong about Bill, not the president.

It’s not funny. It’s fucking racist and it needs to fucking stop right now.